american tragedy

Chapter 47

Chapter 213
Why a girl like Roberta came to this factory as a temporary worker, we need to explain.Just like Clyde and his relationship with his family, she thought her life had been a failure.Her father was Titus Alden, a farmer who lived near Beards, a town about fifty miles north of here.She lived a hard life since she was a child. Her father, the youngest of three sons of farmer Yves Alden, was very poor. When he was 48 years old, he still lived in a shabby house his father left him. .This kind of house, which can be found in common towns and streets in New England, was once a model of handsome style.But now, with peeling paint and the absence of the roof slates that used to form the walkway from the gate to the front door, the house speaks of recent misfortunes like a coughing old man.

The inside of the room is similar to the outside, the ceiling and stairs are broken, sometimes creaking, and the window curtains are less and less.Both old and new furniture have problems to varying degrees, not to mention the incongruity of mixing old and new.

Roberta's parents are the kind of people who are willing to fantasize and don't like to admit reality that represent the American spirit.Titus, like the two older brothers who were also confused, were farmers because their father was a farmer.And he was on the farm for no other reason than that his father had left it to him, and he would be better off here than anywhere else.He voted Republican because his father voted that way too, and he never tried to change that.Politics and religion, the distinction between right and wrong, good and evil, he also borrowed from others.The family had never read an instructive or educational book.However, if considered in terms of religion and morality, his family must be the best.

Their daughter, she is very good, so she has the ability to climb.Therefore, she at least partly reflected some people's ideas at that time. At the same time, she also had a passionate, lively, and imaginative character. When she was fifteen or sixteen years old, she imagined that there would be a man or some men in the future. Be overwhelmed by her beauty.

Although she had to face poverty when she was a child, she was born with a dream, and always fantasized that maybe one day, she would go to a big city like Albabi or Utiga, and her sky would be like that. will be more beautiful.

After that, it was in a dream, from fourteen to.In late spring, in the orchard, the rays of the sun in early May painted the old trees red, and the ground was full of fallen flowers, full of fragrance.There she took a deep breath, smiled, even sighed slightly, her arms spread out, embracing life, how fascinating life is! How beautiful is the world of youth! Maybe a young man will glance at her at this time, and this person may be there again later. I can't touch her anymore, but just this one glance will hook her soul away, and she will feel as if she has entered a dream.

However, she was shy and afraid of men, especially the mediocre ones around here.These people often stop when they see her charming figure, which is unique in this area. When she was 16, she came to Beards and worked in the Asher store for $[-] a week.There, she found many men who attracted her heart, but due to her concerns about her identity and her future, these relationships were almost all broken.However, she still worked there until she was eighteen or nineteen.During this period, she always thought that she should do something for herself, but the poor family really needed her help too much, which made her have no time to be distracted.

At this moment, this commemorative event happened.The low cost of labor in this agricultural district led to a small hosiery factory at Tribez Mills.According to this traditional concept, Roberta felt that this job was not suitable for her, but later, when she heard that the salary was high there, she changed her mind.So she moved in with a neighbor in Tribezmills and went home on Saturday afternoons.She intended to save some money for some special education in Homer or Lycurgus.

For two years, although the salary was higher than before (twelve dollars a week), the family really needed help, and she wanted it, so there was hardly any money saved for two years.

Here, as in Biltz, some young men who matched her intellectual level and character thought that women workers had a low status.Although Roberta was not such a person, as time went on, she gradually became infected with the way others saw her.Now, she finally understands that none of the men she likes will truly fall in love with her.

Two things that happened later made her really start to think about her future and marriage.Her younger sister, Agnes, was twenty years old, three years her junior, and had recently gotten into a relationship with a young headmaster.He had run a school near her farm before, and now her sister felt better about him and decided to marry him.Roberta thought that since her sisters were all married off, she must hurry too, or she would be an old maid and no one would want her.But at this moment, she still doesn't know what the future holds.Later, that hosiery factory suddenly closed down, and it was closed forever.She returned to Beards to help care for her mother and arrange her sister's marriage.

However, later, there was a third thing that hit her dream.A girl she knew at Terry Beziers, Grace Marr, wrote her from Lycurgus saying she had got a job at the Finch Ray Vacuum Cleaner Company for fifteen dollars a month.Now she happened to find that the Griffith Factory posted a sign saying "Female Workers". After asking, she learned that the basic wages of female workers in this factory are nine to ten dollars, and the work is very simple. Dollar.And the cost of lodging and food was only seven dollars.So she broke the news to Roberta, so they could live together.

Roberta felt that there would be no future in staying in the farm, so she decided to go out again.She agreed with her mother that she would use her salary to help the family.

She was very excited after being hired, after all, it was so important to her.Compared with the previous two places, her social status and material life have not improved accordingly.Grace Marr's intimacy with her was mostly due to her feigned happiness.The circle she just entered is not much better than before.

First of all, Grace Marr's sister and brother-in-law, the Newtons, lived with her.Not the sort you used to run into at Beards or Terry Beziers.They were just ordinary workers in the small town, and they thought of Pauling. Everyone knew that George Newton was not romantic, but he was very easy-going. He took everything related to him very seriously.Probably the most important thing for him is to save the money he earned in the Cranston tungsten wire factory, so as to meet the temporary needs of changing industries in the future.For this purpose, he and his wife bought a shabby house on Taylor Street, let the rooms out separately for rent, and also managed the five boarders' meals, so that they would not complain.Grace Marr and Mrs. Newton Mary are two very ordinary people. They are not far-sighted at all. They just think about family, religion, and making a good name in front of those ordinary neighbors.

It didn't take long for Roberta to feel that the family was too conservative, like the Beards.From the perspective of the Newtons and their kind, these things must be observed, otherwise nothing good will happen.A working man should adapt himself to the manners and habits of the Christian workers, the manners of the upper class.Therefore, every day is very formatted, and after waking up, it is a breakfast that is not delicious at all.Usually there was Grace, and two girls like her, Opal Phyllis and Oliver Pope.They were all workers at the Cranston Tungsten Factory, and there was an electrician named Fred Sherlock who worked for the Municipal Electric Light Company. After breakfast, she followed the crowd across the bridge to the river beyond. As the factory moved forward, she always met many young men and women.And those old women almost all looked very tired and haggard.Central Road became more and more crowded after gathering people.Unbearably, at this time, some male workers looked at those girls with lewd eyes.All they want is illicit dealings with them, or worse.Some of the girls also appeared slutty.

In the evening, people who got off work gathered near the bridge and went back to their respective residences. Due to the influence of her family environment and her own personality, although she was beautiful and hungry, she felt very lonely.Alas, the world is so beautiful, so she is so lonely.After dinner, she might go to a movie with Grace, or she might reluctantly go to church with Grace and her sister and her husband.And most of the time, she doesn't know what to do.

In this way, she was integrated into the family, and since she had just arrived in such a big city, with shops, factories and cinemas, the change of environment made her feel very happy.Also, there was this young, handsome, nice Mr. Griffiths who was very interesting to her.

(End of this chapter)